Car companies are massive operations with managers and designers making decisions at multiple levels, yet the power of vision and personality (and megalomania) from the top still holds sway in the automotive industry. Jalopnik readers have selected ten figures that stand out as highly influential this year.

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Europe continued to struggle and its car market floundered. Japanese car sales suffered in China over a territorial dispute. Lower priced cars started to sell not just in developing countries, but in the developed world, too. In-car interfaces have been getting more and more important, with controversial systems like MyFordTouch and Cadillac's CUE.

All of these developments came from sizable car companies, but there were individuals within these organizations who stood out. If you think we forgot anyone in our short list, help us flesh it out in Kinja below.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

10.) Peter Schreyer

One of the main themes of 2012 is that cheap cars can be desirable. Part of this is that auto companies realized their cars for broke people don't have to look like crap. Peter Schreyer, the head designer for Kia, pinched from Audi, has been a significant figure in this movement, making Kias not look like total shit.

9.) Elon Musk

He's a crazy genius building up a private space company and making performance cars that even Greenpeace weirdos can support. Our hope is for a future where V8 muscle sedans and supercars still roam the roads, but now that we have Tesla and Elon, we at least have a plan B. He also wants to line the highways of tomorrow with powerdicks. Most importantly, he's taking on the dealer franchise system.

8.) Alex Zanardi

We're not saying that a single race car driver changed a car company, or altered the car buying market in any significant way. There is no question that Zanardi, who went from near death to two gold medals in the Olympics this year, was one of the most inspirational figures in the car world. If that's not influential, we don't know what is.

7.) Ralph Gilles

Ralph Gilles, as Senior Vice President of Design at Chrysler, has been ultimately in charge of the company's big redesigns of the 300, the Charger, and the Viper. That means he's partially responsible for Chrysler's turnaround. This is a car executive who made significant design decisions based on Halle Berry lying on a beach. That and he called out Donald Trump for being full of shit.

6.) Akio Toyoda

He is the racing enthusiast and driver who heads the most boring car company in the world. He genuinely believes that Toyota can make more money selling more interesting, fun to drive cars. If we had heard that a few years ago, when the company was cranking out the Solara Coupe not the FR-S, we'd have laughed until we peed our pants.

5.) President Obama

It was an election year, so we won't drag you through the same ‘who was responsible for the bailout' business again, but Obama's support for CAFE regulations and their 2025 targets gets him a spot on this list. These strict standards are changing the whole car market. Hyundai and Ford have played to the EPA test and been burned, and the regulation's loopholes continue the demise of wagons and small pickups. Even supercars from Ferrari and Porsche are going hybrid.

4.) Alan Mulally

Ford is building surprisingly good cars these days, and a lot of the thanks goes to the ex-Boeing man who got the company in shape. He still doesn't appear to know much about cars, but he understands business. He also likes kissing engines.

3.) Sergio Marchionne

While Marchionne's empire suffered in Europe with Fiat, Alfa and Lancia, Chrysler is coming along well. A lot of that seems to come down to him being a guy who just gets shit done. Projects have been moving fast, and the right people (like our man Ralph Gilles) have been getting the support they need. This black sweater enthusiast might be overly lionized by the press, but he's still a very influential figure.

1.) Martin Winterkorn

While other car companies cut their development budgets in tough economic times, Winterkorn and his Volkswagen kept spending on the remarkably versatile and very influential MQB platform. VW has continued to grow, and Volkswagen group has built up a number of distinct brands sharing technology. We can't say it all comes down to this grumbling Swabian guy, but so long as he's complaining about Hyundais and making orders, he'll be an amazingly influential person in the car world.